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Mcdaniel's Special Pro Bowl

Ex-vikings Guard Can't Be Bitter

Randall McDaniel will make history Sunday when he plays in his 12th Pro Bowl--all as a starter and in consecutive years.

That's quite an accomplishment for a player the Minnesota Vikings didn't want following the 1999 season.

"They cut me--that was the first time I've ever been cut in my life," the 36-year-old Tampa Bay Buccaneers guard said. "If I had my choice, I would have loved to finish where I started."

McDaniel started every game for the Vikings in 1990-99 and became the first player to start in 11 straight Pro Bowls last year, a record he'll extend Sunday.

Then came the news Feb. 10 that he was being released for what the Vikings called salary-cap reasons. McDaniel signed a three-year contract worth more than $6 million with the Bucs less than three weeks later.

He said this week he kept quiet about one item in a letter he received from the Vikings informing him of their decision.

Until now.

"The one box they checked was I could no longer compete for my job with the guys who were there," McDaniel said, shaking his head. "That ticked me off. This is great for me to make it back to the Pro Bowl this year, it shows I'm not too old, I'm able to do some things right."

McDaniel said his hard feelings didn't last long.

"For about a week I sat there saying, `I can't believe they cut me.' I got over it in about a week," he said. "You can't dwell on the past, you've got to move forward. I've let it go. But I'm not going to lie to you, when we play them, that's one of the easy games to get up for.

"Other than playing them twice a year, I don't even think about it."

He might have this week, with Dennis Green and his Minnesota staff coaching the NFC in this year's Pro Bowl because the Vikings lost in the conference's championship game.

But with them on the sideline, he will break the record he shares with Reggie White for most Pro Bowl appearances.

"I never planned on doing it," he said. "I've just been fortunate enough to come back 12 years. It's a great honor. I wouldn't miss this game for the world.

"I've made friends over here in the 12 years, it's fun to be able to see them again. We do stuff every year with them, I go back to all these places. When I first started playing in the NFL, I was going to play 10 years. Anything more would just be gravy."

Green called McDaniel "a very special player," and said his leaving the Vikings was "part of the game."

"Very few players play their entire career with one team," Green said. "Randall brings a lot of pride as a football player, he's an exceptional athlete."

An exceptional athlete who no longer plays for the Vikings.

Faulk delays surgery: St. Louis Rams running back Marshall Faulk is skipping the Pro Bowl because the knee that forced the NFL's MVP out for two weeks in midseason is bothering him again. But after a meeting with team's orthopedic surgeon George Paletta, who determined scar tissue from a Nov. 6 operation was causing the recent problem, he's holding off on further surgery for now.